Can Magnets Affect the Body?

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I have believed that magnets affect the body to help it to function better and to heal faster for a long time, and I use magnets myself. Most of the evidence that you hear offered for using magnets is usually anecdotal at best, just stories with little if any scientific proof. What if there was some scientific evidence that magnets really can help the body?

I just started reading Cross Currents – The Perils of Electropollution, the Promise of Electromedicine by Dr. Robert O. Becker. I’d heard about Dr. Becker and that he had some things to say about magnets so I picked up his books several years ago but for some reason never got around to reading them. Now I am. The book was copyrighted in 1990, so the information isn’t exactly new, just not commonly shared in the health industry. I’m not very far into the book yet but I came across something interesting that I would like to share.

In sum, magnetic and electromagnetic fields have energy, can carry information, and are produced by electrical currents. When we talk about electrical currents flowing in living organisms, we also imply that they are producing magnetic fields that extend outside of the body and can be influenced by external magnetic fields as well.

The Current of Injury

So far in the book Dr. Becker has been talking about the experiments that he has done to establish something he calls the current of injury. The current of injury is a direct current (DC), the kind of current that you get when you power a device using a battery as opposed to the alternating current (AC) that you get from an outlet in your wall. In DC, electrons flow only in one direction. In AC, the direction of flow switches back and forth several times every second. In the case of a 60 Hz alternating current, the direction of flow changes from forward to backward and back to forward 60 times every second.

He liked to do experiments on salamanders because of their ability to regenerate lost limbs. He measured the current of injury at a broken leg in a salamander over time as the leg healed and compared that to the current of injury in frogs with the same injury (frogs don’t regenerate lost limbs) to see how they were different. The current of injury exists in all animals, even us humans, when they experience an injury, and it is maintained until the injury is completely healed.

Getting back to the quote above, a DC current produces the same kind of magnetic field as you get from a static magnet, it doesn’t change much over time. Likewise, an AC current produces a pulsed magnetic field, one that switches directions with the flow of the charges in the wire.

The current of injury in the body is DC so it produces a static magnetic field. As Dr. Becker stated in the quote from his book, that static magnetic field extends from the body and can be influenced by external magnetic fields. Those external magnetic fields could be the field created by placing a magnet on or near the body or the magnetic fields created by other people close by.

Using the Body’s Magnetic Fields

Most people have heard of MRI, magnetic resonance imaging. An MRI machine takes pictures of the magnetic field in the body so that doctors can get a very accurate picture of what is happening inside. There are also magnetic versions of most of the electrical measurements that can be made from the body. For example, the ECG (electro-cardiogram) has a magnetic counterpart in the MCG (magneto-cardiogram).

The ECG measures the electrical field produced by the heart and involves sticking electrodes to the chest. The MCG on the other hand can be measured at a distance, so it doesn’t involve all the mess of the electrodes. It is also more accurate because the magnetic fields produced by the various tissues in the chest are easier to separate than the combined electrical fields. All tissues produce fields, so the doctors have to filter out the fields from the skin, bone and lungs to isolate the field from the heart itself. It is easier to separate out the magnetic fields.

Back to the current of injury and its corresponding static magnetic field. As I pointed out above with the MRI and MCG, the magnetic field from your brain can be measured without touching your body. Likewise, if you have sensitive enough equipment, you can measure the static magnetic field generated by the DC current of injury. That magnetic field can also be influenced by placing magnets within it by placing a magnet on or near the skin in the area of the injury. This is how magnets affect the body.

The way I see it based on what I’ve read and studied (I studied electrical engineering in college), you can place a magnet on or near the skin in an area where you need a boost. The magnet influences a change in your body’s magnetic field in that area which then causes electrical and/or chemical changes in the body in that area, which can then spread throughout the whole body.

As I said, I use magnets. I wear a magnetic necklace and a magnetic bracelet all the time and I keep a pair of magnetic insoles in my shoes. I have other magnets that I can tape to my skin anywhere that I may feel sore or achy from time to time.

Please leave me a comment below and share if you have used magnets, or considered using them, to help your body and what you used them for.

Disclaimer & Disclosure

I am not a doctor and cannot offer any medical advice. If you have a medical issue then please see your doctor. I am a distributor for the magnets that I use, so I may earn a commission if you order through any of the link on this page. I am also an affiliate with Amazon and may earn a small commission if you order the book through the link above. No commissions I may earn will affect the price that you pay.

12 Responses to Can Magnets Affect the Body?

WOW, I always learn some new stuff from you Ben! I haven’t used magnets before, but as an asthmatic and heart kid I have had a load of ECG’s in my time. I never really had a clue how they worked… I love to get recommendations from people about more natural approaches to healthcare so really grateful for your post. Thanks!

Of course you’ve used magnets before. The Earth has a magnetic field and you use it every time you go outside. To use any other magnet is just to supplement the Earth’s field when you are inside, much like you might take a vitamin to supplement your diet. Thanks for the comment Antoinette.

I’ve tried magnets in the past but I didn’t have much luck with them myself. I also can probably chalk that up to not doing it right because I was told there were certain steps you had to take and I’m sure I messed up somewhere along the lines.

I do though have a friend whose son was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given just a few months to live. She had an acquaintance that had a machine that sends magnetic waves through your body so they borrowed the machine and used it on her son.

A month later when he went back to the doctor there was no sign whatsoever of the tumor and he’s been perfectly fine ever since. That’s been only about two years now since that incident and it’s amazing how that works. He’s a brand new father too!

I definitely will never discount the fact that there is so much out there that can probably heal us much better than modern medicine so keep sharing information about these magnets because someone will read them that really needs it and you could be their lifesaver.

There’s no trick to using magnets, at least not static magnets. You just put it near where you need the help and let them do their thing. That being said, magnets aren’t a miracle solution to everything and they don’t seem to work for everyone. That’s why there are so many other options available. I’m glad that magnetic energy did work for your friend’s son. That’s an amazing story. Thanks for taking the time to visit and leave a comment. I appreciate that.

What an informative post. I didn’t know you were involved with Science in the use of magnets and their electromagnetic fields. That is so cool. My older sister is a natural health fanatic. She believes in the use of magnets. I’ll have to look them up using your site to make a purchase if I decide to go that route.

I love Science and enjoy reading different articles from Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. I love to learn how things work.

I love science and engineering and live very much in the logical left brain. My schooling is in computer and electrical engineering and then massage therapy. I like to know how things work. One of the key things to keep the body functioning is the movement of energy, and magnets are one of the ways that happens. Thanks for taking the time to visit and leave a comment. I appreciate that.

Wow Magnets, When My husband had a back injury, we weer advised to get a magnetic seat cover for his car. We did and he said he felt a whole lot better while driving even more than when he didnt have an injury.

Now I didnt really think it would work, I was just willing to try anything. So you can imagine my surprise. Its great to know that we don’t have to pop pills every time to be healed!

I am glad you have opened my mind Ben to the science behind it. Its something I shall consider for other health benefits.

Thanks Julie. I use a magnetic seat pad in the car too, especially when driving more than an hour from home. It helps keep energy moving so that my legs and butt don’t go numb when sitting in one place for a long time. The Earth is a magnet, it has a north and south pole, and we insulate ourselves from its field when we are indoors or in a car. Using magnets replaces the Earth’s magnetic field just like electric lights replace the sunlight (sort of) when we are indoors. Thanks for the comment.